The river here is different from the one in Jiang's mother's village. The small river that Er Ya often goes to is at most a stream, with water only reaching her calves. But in their big river, an adult can't even see the top of their head for a moment.
It's so dangerous! Last year, a little kid was trying to catch fish and fell in. They still haven't found him. That's why she always strictly forbids her children from going to the riverbank.
Hearing the commotion outside, Chen Xiuhua pulled Er Ya out to see what was happening. Her daughter-in-law was angrily beating her eldest grandson.
Jiang Damin, meanwhile, hid behind his mother, dodging left and right, pulling her so much that she could barely stand.
"Alright, what are you doing, Damin? Let go of your aunt right now, can't you see her belly?"
Jiang Damin then noticed that his mother's belly was showing, and quickly let go of her hand, only to be caught by Wang Meili and given a good beating.
Er Ya quickly helped Jiang's mother up and asked worriedly, "Mother, are you alright?"
Jiang's mother smiled and said, "I'm not a porcelain doll, it's alright."
Chen Xiuhua blocked Jiang Damin's way and said to Wang Meili, "Alright, your sister is still here. Look how scared you've made Damin. Can't you talk things out properly?"
Wang Meili was so angry that her chest ached. Pointing at Jiang Damin, she said, "Mom, you don't know, this child ran off to the river. If he gets swept away by the water, how am I supposed to live?"
She wiped away tears as she spoke, feeling terrified.
Upon hearing this, Chen Xiuhua also hit Jiang Damin a few times with her cane: "I've told you so many times, but you just won't listen. I'm not sorry for hitting you."
Jiang Damin lowered his head and said, "Mom, I was wrong. We only went for a while. When we saw how deep the water was, we went to the riverbank. Look, I even caught a lot of snails. I'll crush them up and feed them to our ducks so they can lay more eggs for us."
Wang Meili tapped Jiang Ermin a few times with a rolling pin: "You kid, why don't you finish your sentence? Brothers are like hands and feet. If you keep making false accusations against your brother, I'll beat you both up."
Jiang Ermin endured those blows without uttering a sound. His mother was biased; it was clearly his brother's fault.
Er Ya's eyes lit up when she saw what they brought back; these snails were a delicious delicacy!
The Chinese river snail is a type of mollusc, also known as the Chinese round snail, which is widely found in freshwater lakes, rice paddies, ponds and ditches.
This aquatic creature is particularly prolific. Every April, the snails begin to reproduce, and a single female snail can produce 150 baby snails a year. If you walk along the riverbank, you'll see a dense mass of snails, which can look rather dirty.
But once it's cleaned, it's delicious. In modern times, she loved eating this and crayfish the most. I just don't know if there are crayfish now.
But having these snails was already quite good. She broke free from Chen Xiuhua's hand, ran to the bucket, and took a closer look, confirming that these were indeed snails.
Blinking her big, round eyes, she said to Wang Meili, "Auntie, these snails are edible! Shall we use them to make something delicious?"
Wang Meili asked in surprise, "You want to eat this? You can't eat this, it will give you diarrhea."
When she was little, she heard people say that you shouldn't catch snails to eat, mainly because they were considered very dirty. Adults also said that they had parasites, which was a serious matter in those days. It was said that the worms in children's stomachs were caused by eating unclean things, so no one ate snails.
"Auntie, it's edible. If you don't believe me, give me this bucket of stuff, and I'll cook you something delicious."
Anyway, it's nothing valuable. If Er Ya wants to give it to her, she can just go and get some more.
Er Ya happily directed Jiang Damin to change the water in the bucket and add some salt, so that the snails would quickly expel all the dirt from their stomachs.
Jiang Damin listened to Er Ya's instructions without complaint, mainly because he heard Er Ya say that this stuff was especially delicious, and he was really eager to try it.
After finishing all that, Er Ya clapped her hands (although she only moved her mouth and did nothing): "Alright, once they've vomited everything out of their stomachs, we can stir-fry them and eat them."
Jiang's mother watched with amusement as she directed Jiang Damin to do chores like an adult, and said, "Alright, Damin, go out and find your grandfather, it's time to eat."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Heping and Lin Jianguo walked in: "Haha, Er Ya, come and let Grandpa take a look."
This is Er Ya's maternal grandfather. He looks to be in his fifties, wearing a worn-out Zhongshan suit and holding a pipe. When he sees Er Ya, his eyes narrow into slits as he smiles.
"Grandpa, I've missed you so much."
Jiang Heping was even happier after hearing these words. He hugged Er Ya and looked her over carefully: "Hmm~ You've gained a lot of weight and become more beautiful. You look much better than before."
Er Ya said coquettishly, "Grandpa, I'm pretty all the time. I'm just growing up now, and I'll be even prettier in the future."
Seeing Er Ya being all lovey-dovey, Jiang's mother called out, "Alright, hurry up and let your grandpa eat. Dad, come and eat."
The Jiang family's children were already sitting at the table, eagerly waiting to eat, and kept urging, "Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt, hurry up, I'm starving!"
Wang Meili knocked on each of them: "You have no manners at all. How old are you? Did you wash your hands?"
The Jiang family members could only grumble as they went to wash their hands. They never usually washed their hands, so why did they suddenly have to wash their hands before eating?
So that's what Er Ya was saying earlier: hands are full of bacteria. After touching so many things all day, they're incredibly dirty. If you then reach in to eat, those bacteria will end up in your stomach, and you'll get a stomachache after a while.
When Wang Meili heard this, she thought it made a lot of sense. Damin often complained of stomach aches, probably because he was always climbing up and down, getting very dirty, and then eating things that might have ingested bacteria.
I've decided that I must strictly supervise them from now on, and make sure they wash their hands before eating.
Jiang Heping looked at the table and said, "This is a good day, there are quite a lot of dishes."
She wondered to herself, "What's wrong with my daughter-in-law? Usually, when my daughter comes over, she's all grumpy and difficult. Why is she acting like this today?"
Wang Meili said with a smile, "This meat was brought over by my sister. So, we cooked it and ate it. We're all family, so it doesn't matter whose stomach it goes into."
That made perfect sense, and it pleased Jiang Heping greatly. It seemed his daughter-in-law's attitude had improved considerably now that her daughter's family was wealthy.
On his way, he heard Lin Jianguo talk about recent events and learned that his daughter had now separated from the family and was having an easier time.
To be continued!
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